Problem with all Ps

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04/17/2015 10:17

Subject: Problem with all Ps

quote

Anonymous

I'm worried that my 4th grader is going to a be B/C student in middle school because of this P system in upper elementary school. My kids are smart but are more math oriented.

When my older child was in MCPS, she received B/C at first in upper elementary school. Getting a B or a C and knowing that if she did specific things differently motivated her to work harder. Since the grading system was more specific the teacher had to give specific reasons why a paper was a C or B and not an A. This really helped my older child learn how to improve. She put in a lot of effort and became an A student in writing. By the time she reached middle school, she knew that she could still achieve an A in a subject with hard work even if she wasn't as naturally talented in that subject. It was a great life lesson on how to achieve success when you aren't naturally gifted in something. It helped teach her good study skills, paying close attention to expectations, seeking help to understand the expectations and gave her a huge sense of pride. She's the type of student now that believes she can do anything even if its hard. She doesn't get upset if she doesn't do well on the first assignment. She digs deep into what she did wrong and works hard to achieve the highest level because she knows its possible.

My younger child is very similar to my older child but she gets all Ps. I pulled out old writing samples from older DD and younger DD's writing work in 4th grade looks like what my older child was doing when she was in 3rd grade and getting B/Cs. I spoke to younger DD's teacher. She told me that proficient means that they can satisfactorily do everything which is a range of a A-C. She agreed with me that if my younger DD was getting traditional grades then her work would be a C or maybe a B. She also made a point that a C or a P is perfectly fine. She thought it wasn't worth getting tutoring and she could only give general, vague guidance on what DD should do to improve. She agreed that it will be hard for DD to substantially improve because she is at grade level and within P range. The new system doesn't reward achievement beyond proficiency so she'll never get assignment by assignment specific feedback or grades that reflect whether she reached what would be a C or A level. She said that she'll just need to learn this in middle school.

The staff development specialist, who is awful, added that not all kids should be A students anyway. She pointed out that DD would probably always be an A student in math and science but a B/C student in writing. She inferred that its a better social emotional balance for kids who are not naturally talented in a subject and able to easily earn As to just accept a C grade. She went on to say that many kids aren't naturally good at math like my DD is and that those kids should learn to accept Cs in math later on too. WTF!!!

This is worst advice that I have ever heard in my life! I don't want my younger DD believing that you can't change your outcome, she only deserves B or Cs because she isn't naturally gifted, and achievement doesn't exist.